I got into film photography because I thought it would make me a better photographer. The idea is when you are exposing an image on film, every click of the shutter has a much greater cost than a digital exposure. Ideally then, each click of the shutter would represent more creative care. In no medium is this more true than large format film. Each sheet of film itself is at least a dollar, and then you add processing.

The question for me was, is it worth it? Does it really make me a better photographer?

Probably not, but I've shot 6 exposures so far (two scenes) and both were worth printing (at least to me). I like that ratio but it sure is a heckuva lot of work.

I have, as I mentioned, an obsession with taking pictures of people, purchasing, preparing and eating food.

One sunny morning, my friend Peter told me to follow him to the church kitchen where they would be preparing to feed 260 people. "Kitchen" apparently had a loose definition, but then again, what else does a kitchen need besides a place to prep and cook one's food?

There aren't many things that visually express cultural differences better than food. Every human on the planet needs to eat. The way we purchase and prepare our daily nourishment is unique. It's different for every family and community.

Maybe that's why I love taking pictures of food (well, besides the fact that I love eating). It's a glimpse into an absolutely mundane, but completely fascinating part of everyone's lives.

I imagine the average shopper in the Kalay markets would experience a similar feeling of fascination walking into a Wal-Mart in East Tennessee.

At certain points, for me, every trip I take is an opportunity to try to take photos of new and interesting places. A work trip to Nashville (with an hour to kill) turned out some of my favorite street photos yet, as well as some of my favorite B/W work AND my favorite work on my Canonet.

In addition to the typical Nashville flora on Honkey-Tonk row, walked a few extra blocks to the state capital buildings and the less tourist-y side of Nashville down-town. It was my first visit to the capitol of my new home state, but not my last.

My name is Brian Notess. I am a Voluntourist. And I’m basically okay with that

I recently read this article as well as a particularly poignant piece in The Onion that fairly skewered young people who go to developing nations so that they can add a flock of impoverished youth to their Facebook profile pictures.

I immediately thought of the picture that is currently on the front page of Uncharted International’s website of myself and a young Burmese woman smiling for the camera (my camera) that I’m reasonably sure was my Facebook profile picture at some point. The aforementioned articles and their authors would perhaps presume that my trip (or trips) to Myanmar had little to no lasting impact on the social welfare of the people there and that the main reason I went was to illustrate to my friends and family back home, that I am an enthusiastic champion of the poor and disenfranchised. They would be mostly correct. And that’s okay.

Voluntourism may have little or no positive effects on the countries or people that the voluntourists visit, but it can (not in every case) contribute towards making the world a better place.

It creates awareness

As the author of the psmag.com piece points out, many organizations get an absurd amount of free marketing materials produced by the Voluntourists who go on their trips. It’s certainly not by accident. The Facebook reach of the average college senior is impressive, and it costs the organization $0 in marketing to tell all of their Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instragram followers all about the work (at least superficially) they are doing in the country.

It creates activists

My good friend who I managed to guilt into picking me up at the Nashville airport at midnight was subjected to a three-hour-car-ride-long monologue about my experience and (I hope) the history and culture of the Burmese people. Even six months later, any person who has had longer than a 15 minute conversation with me will undoubtedly have heard about some of the work Uncharted is doing in Myanmar.

I mention these with one caveat. It is possible to be a voluntourist and neither create awareness for the important work being done there nor become an activist for the causes related to the country you visited. If this is happens, then indeed voluntourism is a myopic and narcissistic experience. Even so, if the alternative for high school and college students is a 12 day whirlwind tour through Paris, Venice and Amsterdam (and I’ve been on one of those too), I think I’d rather have my kids be voluntourists any day.